Innovation
Hosokawa Alpine Aktiengesellschaft, Blown Film Division
Presenting maximum versatility for processors
Visitors to booth D06 in hall 16 will
experience an exciting presentation: in
addition to several advancements,
Hosokawa Alpine will launch some
impressive innovative products
Alpine X die heads â&#x20AC;&#x201C; more layers means
more options
When Hosokawa Alpine presented a 5-layer
coextrusion line three years ago, they
triggered an important development: their
new 5-layer technology helped reduce the
film thickness level by between 5% and 10 %
compared to 3-layer films while saving
material and resources and at no detriment
to the excellent mechanical film property.
Presenting maximum
Many visitors to the Alpine Hosokawa
booth came away impressed and
c o n v i n c e d . To d a y , t h e m a r k e t i s
experiencing a general shift from 3-layer to
5-layer film structures.
Hosokawa Alpine 5-layer blown film lines
can process polyolefins as well as barrier
materials such as PA and EVOH without
extruder changes. For processors, the
benefit introduces a high level of versatility
and opens up new areas of application.
Increasing the layers of a film structure
allows more versatility and results in higher
cost-efficiency, as different raw materials
can be combined. A higher the number of
layers, the more precisely the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

mechanical and optical properties can be
configured. This development will continue
and is far from over, although we have now
moved on to 9-layer lines. At K 2013,
Hosokawa Alpine will provide a live
demonstration of the production of
different 5-layer structures.

Oriented film has many benefits
With more than thirty sold lines, Hosokawa
Alpine is the unrivalled leader in the market
for monoaxial film orientation lines (MDO).
During the orientation process, blown film
is stretched in the direction of the machine
direction between two rollers that run at
different speeds. The resulting stretch ratio
is dictated by the processed raw material.
The film orientation process allows
processors to influence the film properties.
Thanks to this technology the thickness,
strength, orientation in machine direction,
stiffness, puncture, shrink and tear
resistance and deadfold properties,

material density, gloss, transparency,
barrier effect and water vapor permeability
of blown films can be systematically
optimized to suit the application at hand.
Reducing trim waste with the patented
TRIO system
During the orientation process, the film is
constricted in the transverse direction and
its width is reduced. This neck-in has the
effect that the thickness of the oriented
film increases gradually from the center
towards both edges.
In 2012, Hosokawa Alpine developed and
patented the TRIO system. The TRIO trim
reduction for inline orientation is a special
thickness control system. It reduces the
thickness variation on the edges of the film
and balances the thickness profile of the
reel with the result of an excellent flatness
of the film. The entire process becomes
more efficient. At K 2013, Hosokawa Alpine
will run the first live demonstration of the
TRIO System at an international trade
show.
Oriented by TRIO, blown film can be
printed, laminated or decorated. Due to
significant raw material savings, the higher
investment pays off quickly. MDO film is
now perfectly suitable for many
established and new applications.

For more details:
www.hosokawa-alpine.com

Pipe manufacturer impressed again by KraussMaffei
Berstorff's system expertise in multi-layer extrusion

Show Issue

Multitherm, one of the leading pipe
producers in Austria (head office: Vienna),
swears by the premium quality and system
expertise of KraussMaffei Berstorff, and is
investing once more in a multi-layer
extrusion line.
Premium quality technology impresses
satisfied customer
Multitherm has been a staunch customer of
KraussMaffei Berstorff for decades. "With
the current order, Multitherm will replace
an existing extrusion line for the
production of tripe layer pipes in order to
therefore satisfy market demands for more
functional layers," said Andreas Kessler,
General Sales Manager at KraussMaffei

www.PlasticsPla.net

Berstorff. "The recently successfully
concluded acceptance procedure totally
fulfills the technical requirements relating
to the extrusion line."
The core components of the complete

extrusion line are 1 monoextruder and 4
coextruders from the proven single-screw
series and the KM 5L-RKW 91-63 multi-layer
pipehead from KraussMaffei Berstorff. The
extrusion line produces hot water pipes
(with diameters ranging between 14 and 40
mm) with an internal layer made of PE_RT,
an oxygen barrier layer and an external
layer made of PE-RT. Coextruders apply the
adhesive agent between the individual
layers. Multitherm produces the pipes for
use in heating systems and underfloor
heating systems.

For more details:
www.multitherm.net
www.kraussmaffeiberstorff.com
October 2013 â&#x20AC;˘ 18